Better coordination needed to improve security: CM

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has said that concrete steps should be taken to plug in loopholes and make people safe in the city, a day after a bomb blast at the Delhi high court — second in less than four months — claimed 11 lives. Atul Mathur reports.

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has said that concrete steps should be taken to plug in loopholes and make people safe in the city, a day after a bomb blast at the Delhi high court — second in less than four months — claimed 11 lives.

While the National Investigating Agency (NIA) is investigating the case, Dikshit said better coordination was required among various agencies to strengthen security system across the capital.

Dikshit said the police, the central public works department and the judges were supposed to coordinate and identify the requirement and get the closed circuit television cameras installed at the high court.

While there are CCTV cameras inside the court, no cameras were found overlooking the gates and at the pass counters — where the powerful blast took place on Wednesday — to monitor movement of people near the court.

"There should have been cameras. The police ask for the requirement, the judges approve them and the CPWD has to install. The NIA will be able to examine where it was because of some lapses or the delays (the CCTVs were not installed)," Dikshit told HT.

Dikshit said she had met Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday evening and had discussed the loopholes in the security system and the urgent need to address those issues. The CM had to face the ire of relatives of the blast victims when she visited the RML Hospital few hours after the blast.